O Prisoner of Hope Pt. 2 - by April Lynne Self

2 HOPE or not 2 HOPE

In my previous “blog,” I talked about Hope.  And how important it is to our Christian walk to have this Hope that our God is a good God and we have every right to trust in His goodness.  You see, hope is the emotional energy behind our faith.  As Christians, we have often been told not to trust our emotions.  True - our emotions are easily misguided and circumstantial at best – and not straight logical facts – but they are a major part of our life and, I believe, they are given to us by God for our use. If you have ever experienced a joyful godly hope (and I sure hope that you have) you can probably remember that moment.  You can feel it bubbling up from inside you, exciting you, refreshing you.  It is what propels our faith into action.  When we have hope, we can reach for the stars, because our spirits have been given the energy that it needs to go forward. 

But let me tell you another thing about hope – it is like any gift that God gives us – you don’t use it - you lose it!  If you have the “emotional energy” to go do something and then just sit on it – the energy and the motivation will leave.  If you want to go to the gym and begin a workout schedule – the more times you make excuses and don’t go – the less likely you will ever keep to that schedule. And those of you that do exercise regularly – you know how that exercise (use of your energy) not only keeps your energy level up but increases it.  Similarly, with hope – if you want to keep it up – you need to ACT on the Hope you have.

Think of a race.  When you run a race, you see a finish line.  It is real; it is there even though you have not crossed that line yet. With that finish line in view, you are motivated to keep going, to run as best as you can.   The closer you get, the clearer the path gets and more determined you become.  That is a picture of HOPE.  Yet in this race scenario, if the runner quits, or decides to run in an opposite direction then the runner will never experience victory, not because the finish line is not there, but because he didn’t pursue it.

James tells us that “faith without works is dead.”  Many people have argued over this simple phrase.  But it is really obvious when you think about it.  Faith is the gift that God gives us to believe in Him despite our circumstances, to believe in this impossible, amazing Gospel that Jesus really did die on a cross for our sins and there is NOTHING that we can do to earn it – it is just given.  Are you really going to sit around doing nothing when you have been given such an incredible gift?  If you were given 2 million dollars, are you going to do nothing with it, just stay in debt paying your creditors like you have no money, not take care of some much-needed work to your house or your wardrobe 😉?  The writer of Hebrews tells us that “Faith is the substance of things HOPED for and the evidence of things not seen.”  Faith embodies the hope that we have in God.  It is tangible, it is seen.  If you do no works, if you do not act on the hope you have in God, the energy of that faith will die out.  And if there is no energy left, then there is no life  – it is dead.

So OK, lets get real, get practical.  To demonstrate how this hope works, I want to share some personal details.  Last time I mentioned that God had given me a new Hope in Him regarding His undeniable Character to redeem that which we have lost.   God struck my heart with hope in two specific areas of loss: my marriage and my ministry. 

I was married to a great guy for 10 years and then it all disappeared – in an instant.  This was a loss that has affected me deeply over the years.  I was single for another 10 years and then God brought my husband Hugh into my life.  I do not want to take anything away from my husband, who is a good and godly man, but we have been through some stuff.  There have been times just over the past couple of years when I wondered whether or not we would make it.  You see when things were tough, I made them tougher, by comparing him (not even totally conscious that I was doing that) to previous relationships.  And when God encouraged my soul – I felt Him share with me that my marriage would be better than any previous relationship.  In that moment of hope, I became aware that in my heart I had thought that was not possible.  I knew we could have a good relationship – but better?  I got excited, because I really had hope that God was going to work out something amazing between us.  However, our marriage did not immediately go to this perfect place – and that’s when the “work” of hope started to kick in.  I had the energy, the hope, the excitement that something more could take place, but what was I to do with that? 

In my hope, I realized that I needed to address this one issue God had revealed to me and do what was necessary to recognize and stop whatever “rose colored” thoughts arose from the past.  Many times to move forward there are things that we have to drop; sometimes things that seem good to us at the moment.  But if you want to continue to live in hope, you have got to make the choice to drop it!  The best way to stop a thought, is to start a new one.  So I needed to put in my mind the list of things that have been good – and even create thoughts about new future plans that may work out.  It is OK if those thoughts don’t pan out, because God’s ways are better anyway.  I confessed my thoughts to my husband and shared with him my excitement for the future.  And most of all, I needed to start acting like we have had and are going to continue to have a great relationship.  If I believe God, then how silly is it going to look - years down the road - when our marriage has stood the test of time – and think about some of the stuff that I say right now??  For hope to continue, I need to pursue ways to Love Hugh better and better; I need to study more what it means to respect and honor him and put him in the place of leadership that he belongs in.  I need to pray about what that looks like in our unique relationship (everyone’s relationship is unique – and these godly principles are going to show up differently for each couple.)   I need to act on what I believe God has promised.

As far as ministry goes, I have been involved in many avenues of ministry.  I have seen them come and I have seen them go. Currently I have been in a stagnant place and I have felt unable to pursue anything worthy of God’s Kingdom.  But God encouraged me that my end was not yet, in fact there was going to be more ministry before me.  So what do I do with this?  First, I need to stop listening to the lies the enemy was telling me that all that I have done before was no good.  All of life is used by God; He doesn’t waste anything.  All previous ministries were valuable in their own right for whatever God wanted them to be used for.  I do not have to figure it all out.  Now, in believing this hope that God has given me, I need to pursue whatever options of ministry come before me.  I have been here before, if I look at what I have learned, I know what to do.  Matthew 7:7 says “. . .  keep knocking and the door will be opened to you.”  Since there is going to be more ministry, then I know it is not a waste of time to try many different things, to look into building what I already do and seeing what ministries / organizations are already out there that I can plug into.  Some things may work and some may not, but because I know that God has something for me, I can be at peace that this process is worthwhile.  I just have to be willing to look, to take the time and effort to pursue His plans.  Then it is God’s job to make His plan and His way known to me; and for me to trust that He can and will make that clear. 

The bottom line is that you can hope in the promises of God – but if you do not act on it – it becomes stagnant and useless.  God can promise me a better marriage – but if I do not work at building that better marriage, If I do not address my issues that God reveals to me (which He may do little by little), then my marriage is doomed to failure.  Likewise, if I do not pursue options for ministry, then the hope of something valuable for the Kingdom dies with me.  God’s promises become moot – not because He is unable to work amazingly in my life – but because I did not truly believe in the hope that He gave me. 

What Promise of God are you hoping in right now?  Begin the process of acting on that hope and running the race set before you.  Be encouraged that there are so many that have gone on ahead of us and made the journey faithfully with God and He came through!

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”